Do you appreciate the subtleties of taste?

If you're in or have ever been involved in art (or anything creative) you know it can be really discouraging. Why is it discouraging? Well I recently watched an interview with Ira Glass (host of radio show This American Life) and he describes the problem so well. He talks about how people get into any creative discipline because of passion and taste. It seems taste has everything to do with your development as an artist.
The problem is, as an artist you have awesome taste and great vision but sometimes your abilities are not developed enough to be able to execute it the way you want. It's something you have to work on and develop- and that can take a long time. This is why so many creative people get discouraged, they know what they want, they have great taste and vision but don't know why they can't produce what they want to. Most of the time they are conscious that what they make is not what they want to be making, and a lot of people give up.


The only real way to get where you want to be is by practicing and doing. A lot. This in itself is a paradox, you hate what you make so you don't want to make more but you have to make more to like what you want. It's a vicious cycle. Personally, I'm finally seeing bits and pieces of things I produce that I like, I mean really like. It's a challenge to drive yourself to keep making when the results are mediocre at best but it is the best thing to do.
Anyhow, thanks Ira, I think most people go through this and don't realise that it is SO common and normal. I think it's advice everyone should hear (look where it got Ira!) Have you been stuck in this rut? How do you overcome it?

The Role of Art

Hey look! A blog post! Ok, so I've been off school now for a little more than one week, and I am lovvvvvvving it. Thus far, my summer has been great, although not exactly a summer (with the beautiful exception of today). Anyhow, all this time sans blogging has left me thinking about things more. It's a little easier to think about your perspective when you have time to.
So lately I've been reflecting on all the STUFF I've learned this year, and you know, it's quite a substantial amount. There's been a lot of things I've never thought about, never known, never realized, you get the picture. Now one topic that seems relevant enough to post about is the role of art in the world. Not just art but ART whether it is painting, photography, design, film, music, literature, anything. I've been trying to figure out it's point in the world. There are so many different approaches people can take, and I think that's why identifying an answer personally has been so difficult. Not only this, but what do I WANT it's role to be? Because the truth is- art serves whatever purpose the creator made it for wanted it to serve.
Some just want to create, they get a burst of creativity and manifest this into something physical. I think there's a lot of controversy over this issue because a lot of people want another person's art to serve their purpose. I think there's a place for everything., every idea. I do think art has the power to change things, and like when art challenges the way you look at things, like a lot of movements and artists have (think banksy, duchamp, magritte, surrealism, dada, etc.) have. I don't know if I agree with the art for art sake thing, but I do think art should be accessible to everyone so if that's how it happens than so be it. Regardless, I think there should be some sort of meaning (I guess even art for art's sake has meaning, so I'm kind of contradicting myself).
I guess I've been thinking about this trying to figure out where I can fit in. What do I want to do with the things I make? Do I want them to challenge? Do I want them to be purely functional? Can the these things go together? I suppose it's something only more work can determine. What do other people do?

Photoblog- The Art in my house

So, I took a whole bunch of pictures today for a photoblog. To make some kind of coherent sense, I've decided that the theme of said photoblog will be 'the art in my house'. Give you a smattering of the visual glory I surround myself with. After each picture (or group) I'll just write a little bit of what it is. Enjoy!

Window (yeah there are a few windows that look into other windows... kind of weird) in my house decorated with various jelly sticker things. There's some flowers, and a bird and a whole bunch of nice shapes. Fun to look at!
Tacky picture that came with our old house. We would always put it in a closet or turn it down, but whenever we came back to the house in the summer it was displayed prominently on the mantle. Naturally we took it with us to this house. Also the artist now sells pictures for $8000.

Posters in my room. They're all silk-screened and awesome. You may recognize one of them from here!

Various surfaces (ie fridge and bulletin board) with fun images etc. on them. If you look closely you can see pins/magnets that I made.

Islands Fold- residency and publishing house

I was recently introduced to Islands Fold, and it really intrigues me.

Islands Fold™ is an independent publisher and artist residency created and operated by Angela Conley and Luke Ramsey. It's about inviting artists into our home, supporting
creative identity, collaborating, promoting health and well being and producing unique art. Established on Pender Island B.C, Canada in the Spring of 2006.

It's housed over 25 artists and designers since it began. It's also a publishing house, you can buy art on the website, "Selling art online is the business side of Islands Fold. The residency is not a business, but a way to make friends and art". There are also associated exhibitions worldwide and workshops.
I think it's a really cool thing they have going on. It's a good opportunity for creativity, collaboration, and experimentation. Art communities are probably the coolest thing.

Oh! Bringing art and music home since 2009

Things happen where you make it happen. To anyone who has ever thought 'my town is boring' or 'this place isn't big enough for cool things to happen' OH! is proof that this is not true.

Open House Arts Collective (Oh!) "is a group of musicians, artists, and art enthusiasts based out of London Ontario Canada, working together to motivate, support, and inspire the London arts community and to promote the community's endeavours within the larger Canadian arts scene." Their mission is to promote "the London art community through music and art events. Oh! shares ideas and creates partnerships with the London community to raise awareness of local culture".
Recently Oh! participated in the Indie Media Fair held at the London Public Library. This also launched the Oh! Compilation One album.
The album has 12 tracks from 12 different artists (well, some overlap between acts), and since I procured this album from Grooves on Monday (for the too low price of $5.99), it has not left my ears. Well, ok that's not true, I bought Dark Was The Night at the same time, so I've been alternating. On first listen I was astonished. Astonished that this whole production came out of London, astonished because of how quickly this has all happened, and astonished because of how good all the music is.
Time for an anecdote: I was sitting in my living room with Andrew (roommate), playing every other track from Dark Was the Night (basically 31 songs from the most well known indie artists of our time), and every other track from Oh! 1, and during an Oh! song he asked "still dark was the night"? Every track is so well done, who knew all this talent existed in London?
Back to the music. There's a great range of styles on the album, folk, indie-rock, to more electronic music. Here's a little about some of my favourite tracks (sorry too hard to profile them all! Maybe later):

Sidewalks is by A horse and His Boy, a five piece band, it's layered with lots of different sounds and textures mainly by synth and vocals, with drums and guitar added. For some reason to me it's like what would happen if Wolf Parade and MGMT got together.

Tidal Wave is by The Whipping Wind. I actually... can't find anything about this band, but it's one of my favourite tracks. Maybe it's the horns, strings, the bells, the ukulele (or is it banjo?) and hand-clapping bridge, or the way the voices blend so beautifully together. It's a really well constructed song, with great lyrics.

The Decline is by Olenka and the autumn lovers, it's very melodic, the vocals blend really well together and has a great build up filled with horns. It's a really interesting and catchy song. Olenka and the Autumn lovers also put on a great show, they played at LOLA last year, go see them if you're lucky enough to be in an area where they're playing sometime. They also won CHRW album of the year.

There are so many more great tracks on this album, I wish I had time to profile them all (this has already taken me an hour and a half) but I urge to to check out the Oh! myspace to hear some of this incredible work. They truly are proof that you don't have to be signed, or even well known to make incredible music for people to hear (The album was also reviewed in London Free Press). It's really impressive, and if you like what you hear, support it! Without support things like this would never happen. Watch out for big things in the future from Oh! It's just a matter of time before you'll be hearing about them everywhere.

Looking for the perfect... gift, accessory, household item, piece of art, anything else?

So I found this site a few weeks ago, and I'm astounded at the stuff you can get off of it. It's called Etsy, and it is a place where various artisans sell their work which includes: Accessories, Art, Bags and Purses, Bath and Beauty, Books and Zines, Candles, Ceramics and Pottery, Clothing, Furniture, Geekery, Glass, Jewelry, I think you get the idea (there's a lot more I haven't mentioned like stuff for Weddings, Annie). The awesome thing is most stuff is so cheap! So much cheaper than it woudl be in the store. It's almost too good...
For example, "This handcrafted necklace is made with Freshwater pearl and Swarovski crystal on on hand-knotted silk thread.
The closure is a Silver plated lobster clasp.
The length of the necklace 16" extendible to 18" with a Silver plated chain" How much would this normally be? I'm guessing at least $70, but no, it's $12.80 plus shipping from Thailand makes it $16.30.
I think I've found a new online addiction.
The Jewelry and Art sections are my favourite, everything you find on here is original so you know you're getting something unique. There are prints, photography, paintings, anything you could want. If you see something you like, you can also browse by store, which means you see one person's whole store.

Starstruck $22.00 Photograph print by urbandesign

So check it out if you're looking for something unique for yourself, or someone else. You won't be disappointed. They've got something for every event, style, thing, person.

My Least Favourite Artist Ever

I'm in a class called 'Limits of the Avant-Garde' and it's amazing. If you're into various kind of crazy art movements and you like making creative projects rather than writing essays and you're in MIT take it next year. Anyhow, in said class we discuss why some art movements came to be; what fueled them (my favourite is the Situationists). Today we discussed post-modern art movements, and aggregator art. This got me thinking about meaning behind certain artists that are not necessarily Avant-garde. Immediately I thought of my least favourite artist ever. Norman Rockwell.
Why do I dislike him? Maybe it's things like this, “If a picture wasn't going very well, I'd put a puppy in it.” That's a direct quote. From what I have gathered from his website and work I have seen what drives him is innocence. He wants to portray an innocent America that is pure and whimsical. He paints the world as he would like it to be. I guess sure, fine, that's meaning... but I don't think it's very bold, or even original. I have no clue how the man became an icon. I don't really like the meaning behind it, and I really don't like the aesthetic appearance of his art. Forgive me for being rash or harsh, but it's just plain TACKY.

Can't stop looking at...

MAKE SOMETHING COOL EVERYDAY. MSCE is an online community of people that seems to be growing pretty steadily. The goal for participants is, well, to make something cool everyday. The only criteria is it should be created in ONE day. I imagine it would be both inspiring and draining to try and making something everyday. I mean, I would be happy making something cool every WEEK.


The project features designers, artists, illustrators, as well as random people it has collected.
There are also numerous Flickr groups, and streams dedicated to it. There appears to be a core group of people that do post everyday, but there are also quite a few more sporadic users. Some choose to go with themes, Moss (the user who I believe started this project) has a series of vintage looking packaging for films and videogames. Shown above is an image belonging to Trustzabo who seems to have a thing for reptile collages. There are also occasions when one user will suggest a theme and others will design something around that theme (for example top played song).So check it out, it's kind of addicting. Maybe one day when I'm less busy I'll try to MSCE too.

Big Time Waster and Oh so Fun!

Anyone who knows me knows I love procrastinating. It's pretty much my full time job. I have developed a talent, finding endless ways besides the usual to do so. One such way is making your very own Jackson Pollock paintings from jacksonpollock.org .
Here's a beauty I made while procrastinating this blog post.
Lovely isn't it? So if you're looking for something fun to do... this may be your best bet.

Learning to Love you More

So... I wouldn't call myself a fan exactly because I am not such a huge follower but I'm always impressed with the work of Miranda July. She wrote, directed, and starred in the movie You, Me and Everyone We Know which is fantastic. She has also published a book, and done several performance/video/web projects that have appeared in the Museum of Modern Art,and the Guggenheim.
Today I came across something that reminded me of one of her newer projects called Learning to Love you More. This project is on the web and anyone can participate the website states:

Learning to Love You More is both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. Yuri Ono designs and manages the web site.
Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience.

Brian McGovern- Assignment #10: Make A Flier of Your Day

It's kind of like a post secret but with different tasks that range from personal, simple, humourous, and kind. Examples of tasks include: grow a garden in an unexpected place, braid someone's hair, heal yourself, Photograph a significant outfit, make an encouraging banner, make a flier of your day. It's fun to look through what people have sent in. I think it's a pretty cool project, so check it out.

www-ilderness

So... I found this guy quite a while ago. I really like most of his stuff so I decided to post it here. He is Travis Stearns and he's done work for: Threadless, D&G, and Nylon magazine among a lot more companies etc.
HE experiments with different kinds of design which I think is really cool. I like his mixes of photos, drawings, fonts, and styles.

These are just a few of his images so check other ones out on the behance network.
He has some good typography, collaging, and seems to appreciate skateboarding. It's interesting how much you can tell about a person by their art. See if you can figure more out...

Where is Your Bike?

The title of this here blog is a tribute to my German neighbour. Anytime I leave the house of foot and he sees me I get "Where is your biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike? Why don't you biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike?". So here's to him.




I think it would be neat to be in a bike gang. Just riding up and down the streets so badass on the most d.i.y. vehicle since the foot. There is a chance I'll go on a bike trip with some friends this summer. It would be fun, adventurous, relatively inexpensive. We'll see.
I found that image on ffffound!(a really cool image blog) but originally it was from Fecal Face which really covers everything awesome ever. It's quite extensive and time consuming. You can really loose track of time looking at all the features. Check it out. I'll be posting relevant content I find neat from there a lot I think.